After one giant leap from mediocrity, New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum was keen to keep the bubbly on ice for a day or two at least.

A blazing captain's knock from McCullum and an inspired return from Ian Butler sent the Twenty20 series to a decider in Wellington on Friday night.

In a huge turnaround, New Zealand bounced back from a meek 40-run defeat in Auckland to topple England by 55 runs at Hamilton's Seddon Park last night, and restore faith that the two limited overs series will be seesawing battles.

McCullum's blistering 74 off 38 balls, including five sixes, guided the Black Caps to 192-6. England had never chased down a T20 total that high and they folded for 137, with Butler marking his first international since December 2010 with figures of 4-0-9-2.

Big-hitting Jos Buttler (54 off 30) prolonged the inevitable before James Franklin took a career-best 4-15 to mop up the tail.

McCullum glanced off the plaudits for his knock but heaped praise on Butler and the bustling Mitchell McClenaghan (2-24) who crippled England's chase to 47-5.

"I'm delighted for them. Butler in his return to the side was magnificent. It was brilliant and the way he got his wickets, he hurried the batsmen and extracted some pretty good bounce," McCullum said.

Momentum can swing so wildly in cricket's shortest form. With a decent total to defend, the listless New Zealand bowling performance in Auckland transformed into an electric opening stanza which sealed the contest.

"T20 is a bit like that, you only have to be a little bit off and if one team plays reasonably well, there's a bit of a gulf between the two sides," McCullum said.

"We're delighted with the performance after us being pretty poor the other day."